Description & information
In the interval between completing Serpent and Lily and leaving for Paris, Kazantzakis published a series of literary texts in Pinakothiki and Panathenia magazines, which he signed under the pseudonym Karma Nirvami.
Most of these are short and are termed "prose poems" or "prose songs". Their subject matter is love, death and beauty; the aestheticist, sensual aura points to the atmosphere in Serpent and Lily.
One exception is "Gory Daybreak", which refers to an act of revenge by a number of Cretans following the last revolution; Katsimbalis terms this "a true short story".
Lastly, "A Christmas Tale" was probably written in Paris, and more closely resembles travel writing; the author expresses his thoughts on the bankruptcy of science, a subject he was to return to in 1909, in his essay "Has science gone bankrupt?"
"Ti mou lene i paparounes" ["What the poppies tell me", Pinakothiki 6 (August 1906) 96-98
"Mia agapi" ["A love"], Pinakothiki 6 (October 1906) 133-139
"Requiem", Pinakothiki 7 (March 1907) 3-4
[republished by G. K. Katsimbalis in "The unknown Kazantzakis", Nea Estia, vol. 64, issue 744 (1.7.1958) 1021-1025]
"Nifi" ["Bride"], Pinakothiki 7 (April 1907) 34
"Ematomena ximeromata" ["Gory Daybreak"], Panathenia 13 (31.3.1907) 366-368
[republished by G. K. Katsimbalis in "The unknown Kazantzakis", Nea Estia, vol. 64, issue 746 (1.8.1958) 1142-1144]
"I epistrofi tou asotou" ["The return of the prodigal"], Pinakothiki 7 (May 1907) 55
"Dio dakria" ["Two Tears"], Panathenia 14 (31.5.1907) 111-112
"Nostalgia" ["Nostalgia"], Pinakothiki 7 (June-July 1907) 73
"Christougenniatiko" ["A Christmas Tale"], Pinakothiki 7 (January 1908) 172-173
[republished by G. K. Katsimbalis in "The unknown Kazantzakis", Nea Estia, vol. 64, issue 745 (15.7.1958) 1079-1083]
